Progress on the Paternal Brain: Theory, Animal Models, Human Brain Research, and Mental Health Implications

Abstract

With a secure foundation in basic research across mammalian species in which fathers participate in the raising of young, novel brain-imaging approaches are outlining a set of consistent brain circuits that regulate paternal thoughts and behaviors in humans. The newest experimental paradigms include increasingly realistic baby-stimuli to provoke paternal cognitions and behaviors with coordinated hormone measures to outline brain networks that regulate motivation, reflexive caring, emotion regulation, and social brain networks with differences and similarities to those found in mothers. In this article, on the father brain, we review all brain-imaging studies on PubMed to date on the human father brain and introduce the topic with a selection of theoretical models and foundational neurohormonal research on animal models in support of the human work. We discuss potentially translatable models for the identification and treatment of paternal mood and father-child relational problems, which could improve infant mental health and developmental trajectories with potentially broad public health importance.

Individual variation in fathers’ testosterone reactivity to infant distress predicts parenting behaviors with their 1‐year‐old infants

“…Therefore, decreases in testosterone may be associated with increases in cortisol, prolactin, progesterone, and estradiol, and these in turn, may facilitate sensitive, nurturing behavior in fathers. Given that infant cries elicit activation in men’s brain regions associated with motivation, emotion regulation and social cognition (Swain et al, 2014), the activation of these areas during fathers’ exposure to their infant’s cries may elicit changes in hormone levels, which, in turn, facilitate sensitive fathering behaviors. Future studies would benefit by assessing these additional hormones and consider them simultaneously in the prediction of fathering behavior to determine if changes in T still remain significant in predicting human paternal behavior.…”

“…Indeed, fathers show greater neural activation when hearing infant cries compared to laughter, whereas non-parents show the opposite response (Seifritz et al, 2003), suggesting that fathers experience stronger physiological changes when seeing their infants in distress compared to playing with their infants. Infant cries specifically activate regions important for attention and emotion that should support a father’s ability to react appropriately to the situational context (Seifritz et al, 2003; Swain, Dayton, Kim, Tolman, & Volling, 2014; Swain, Lorberbaum, Kose, & Strathearn, 2007). Thus, understanding the social context surrounding father-infant interaction is paramount.…”

Childhood social inequalities influences neural processes in young adult caregiving

“…The standard infant cry sound has been used in several previous papers with different samples of mothers (Kim et al, 2011; Kim et al, 2010; Swain et al, 2008). This paradigm reliability elicits maternal neural responses (Swain et al, 2014). Using Cool Edit Pro version 2.0 (Syntrillium Software, Phoenix, AZ), the white noise sound enveloped the pattern and volume of the infant cry sound.…”

“…Caregiving behaviors are also linked to increased activation in neural regions related to social and emotional information processing, such as the insula, precuneus, and fusiform gyrus (Barrett & Fleming, 2011; Swain et al, in press; Swain et al, 2014). Previously, first-time human mothers who themselves suffered low quality maternal care in childhood showed smaller brain structure and reduced neural activation in response to infant cry sounds within social information processing areas, such as insula and superior temporal gyrus, as well as emotion regulation regions, such as inferior frontal gyrus and hippocampus (Kim et al, 2010).…”

Die Bedeutung des Vaters in der frühen Kindheit: Folgerungen für die Mutter-Kind-Behandlung

“…Eine positive väterliche Involviertheit fördert die kognitive, sprachliche und soziale Entwicklung des Kindes (Malmberg et al 2016;McWayne et al 2013), Sie zeigt dem Kind Grenzen auf, die sein Gefühl von Sicherheit fördern (Swain et al 2014). Wenn Väter in Interaktion mit dem Säugling zurückgezogen oder distanziert waren, dann erhöhte sich das Risiko für externalisierende Verhaltensauffäl-ligkeiten (aggressives, oppositionelles Verhalten) im Alter von einem Jahr des Kindes um das Fünffache (Ramchandani et al 2013).…”